Works Exhibited
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Justin Adian, Richard Artschwager, Tauba Auerbach, Martin Barré, Jean-Michel Basquiat, David Batchelor, Dike Blair, John Chamberlain, Dan Christensen, Dan Colen, Ida Ekblad, Jeff Elrod, Urs Fischer, Jack Goldstein, Piero Golia, Kim Gordon, Katharina Grosse, Wade Guyton, Richard Hamilton, Keith Haring, Hans Hartung, Alex Israel, Anish Kapoor, Paul Klee, Jeff Koons, Harmony Korine, John Latham, Joseph Logan, Nate Lowman, Olivier Mosset, Takashi Murakami, Albert Oehlen, Jules Olitski, David Ostrowski, Steven Parrino, Sigmar Polke, Stephen Prina, Ugo Rondinone, Pamela Rosenkranz, Sterling Ruby, Ed Ruscha, Mira Schendel, Julian Schnabel, David Smith, Rudolf Stingel, Blair Thurman, Charline von Heyl, Andy Warhol, Lawrence Weiner, Franz West, Michael Williams, Christopher Wool, Richard Wright
Gagosian is pleased to present Sprayed, organized by Jona Lueddeckens and Greg Bergner.
This extensive exhibition spanning four generations explores the myriad ways in which artists have employed the impulsive yet depersonalized and non-gestural forces of spray. It begins with Paul Klee’s work on paper Seltsames Theater (1929), where he improvised with a blowpipe to achieve hazy background effects in a circus scene. This tentative experiment presaged the bold and diverse artistic license that would come with the postwar advent of aerosol paint as a consumer product and the use of the industrial paint compressor.
From the mid-1950s, sculptor David Smith sprayed enamels over various studio objects and offcuts laid on canvas and paper as stencils; the resulting images recalled Paleolithic cave paintings made by blowing pigment over hands pressed flat. John Chamberlain blurred the lines between painting and sculpture by torquing scrap automobile parts into painterly abstractions, then enhancing the original paint surface with fresh sprays of colored lacquer. Lawrence Weiner’s interaction with the medium resulted in a simple, dispassionate instruction: TWO MINUTES OF SPRAY PAINT DIRECTLY UPON THE FLOOR FROM A STANDARD AEROSOL SPRAY CAN (1968), while Martin Barré tested it at different distances and pressures in a series of rapid strikes producing sequences of stripes and cryptic punctuations on paper.
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Artists
Richard Artschwager
Jean-Michel Basquiat
Dike Blair
John Chamberlain
Dan Christensen
Dan Colen
Urs Fischer
Jack Goldstein
Piero Golia
Katharina Grosse
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Sprayed: An Interview with Peter Stevens
Harnessing the gestural, unpredictable, projectile qualities of spray paint, artists have repurposed it as an alternative to the brush, to create hazy textures, drips, puddles, and graffiti-like text. Peter Stevens discusses this history of spray paint as an artistic medium with Alison McDonald.
Albert Oehlen: Terrifying Sunset
The artist speaks with Mark Godfrey about his new paintings, touching on the works’ relationship to John Graham, the Rothko Chapel, and Leigh Bowery.
Donald Marron
Jacoba Urist profiles the legendary collector.
In Conversation
Albert Oehlen and Mark Godfrey
Albert Oehlen speaks to Mark Godfrey about a recent group of abstract paintings, “academic” art, reversing habits, and questioning rules.
Albert Oehlen: In the Studio
This film by Albert Oehlen, with music by Tim Berresheim, takes us inside the artist’s studio in Switzerland as he works on a new painting.
Augurs of Spring
As spring approaches in the Northern Hemisphere, Sydney Stutterheim reflects on the iconography and symbolism of the season in art both past and present.
